Monday, October 10, 2016

How it’s Made: Autumn Glass Leaves

In the heart of
Pittsburgh resides a private glass blowing studio where unique and colorful
glass leaves are produced daily. After making glass pumpkins for the past 10
years, it was time to create something else representative of fall and as a
compliment to the pumpkins. Starting out with four or five simple colors, these
Pennsylvanian glass blowers have expanded their color line to ones you see
today in our Museum Shop. Find out how these remarkable glass leaves are made.

They first start by pulling, or gathering, a clear mass of
glass from the main glass furnace. It is basically a huge crucible full
of molten, clear glass held at 2100 degrees inside a giant insulated
kiln. From there, they add chipped up bits of colored glass and melt them
in.

Once the color is all worked in, they flatted, or smash, the
mass and use special glass shears to cut all of the leaf petals.

Finally, they pull the glass off of the pipe to create the
stem, and it goes directly into a different hot kiln where it sits overnight to
cool, or as they say, anneal. After 16 hours, they are at room
temperature and ready to ship!